Woosh has Arrived!!

Aurora’s Birth Story:

Since Aurora was a breech baby, head up in right rib and bum in my pelvic bone area, she was scheduled to be delivered via cesarean birth on Wednesday, October 13, 2010. However, she wanted to pick her own birthday and decided to grace us with her presence the day before. We did not know the sex of our baby until the doctor pulled her out of me.

On Monday, October 11, 2010 Jaimie and I went in for our pre-op appointment at 10am. This was when we met the “assisting” surgeon for the first time and were able to ask all of our questions, get labwork done and met with the operations nurse to fill out all the important information, for our scheduled cesarean birth Wednesday morning at 8am. While the doctor checked to confirm baby was still breech, he commented that he could not tell because I was having a mild contraction at that moment. I was confident baby had not turned though, since I knew what her head felt like. The OB did not seem concerned about the contraction and we left the appointment excited for wednesday. Later on that day I felt a few more mild contractions, but they were about 30 mins to an hour apart and did not seem very consistent. I did think in the back of my mind that the chances I would make it to Wednesday were slim, but I didn’t concern myself with it since I felt fine. Jaimie and I got home from all of our errands that day, planning to finish packing the car and cleaning up a bit more at the house the following day (Tuesday) in preparation for going to the hospital for the scheduled birth. We had dinner and went to bed very early, which is out of character for us since we stay up pretty late typically, at 8:30pm. I woke up several times that night needing to pee and feeling rather “gassy” but not thinking anything of it. The final time I woke up, about 5:15 am, I felt mild “menstrual” type cramping in my lower abdominal area and decided to get up and try going to the bathroom again. I climbed out of bed, started across the rug to the bathroom and my water broke in a gush onto the rug, I quickly go to the toilet and the rest started coming out!! I called upstairs to Jaimie, saying “My water broke” and he immediately jumped out of bed and for about 1 minutes seemed to be running around all crazy style, since he was dead asleep. I told him I needed him to calm down and get a few things and he snapped out of it and was calm and collected. I also told him to get my phone and dial the birthing center, so we could tell them we were on our way, so that they could call the surgeon and get ready to receive us. We finished packing up the few items we needed to take with us for the next day and headed down the hill to the truck. I was still leaking quite a bit and since I didn’t have any pads (not that they would have helped at this point) I had Jaimie cut up and old towel and I made a make shift soaker, hoping it would get me to the birthing center relatively dry. On the way I called all of the parents and my youngest sister to tell them we were on our way since my water broke. They were very excited! We made it to the birthing center by 6:30 am and were greeted by my favorite nurse!! She told me later she had called to find out the status of things that morning, upon hearing that I was coming in, she decided to come in early so that she could attend my surgery!! I was so happy. She immediately wisked us off to our room, the one I would have chose myself had I been given the choice!!, and started getting me ready for surgery. I was undressed, redressed in a gown, placed on the monitor and set up with an IV lock. My midwife came in to tell me she would not be able to attend since they had 5 other births in progress!! I told her that was fine, since my favorite nurse would be there. Once all the downstairs prep was finished Anne (my nurse) came in to tell another cesarean birth just walked in also and we may have to go second. We said that was fine, since my contractions were very slow still. A few minutes later we got good news though! Since we were already prepped and all of our paperwork and labs had been completed, and since I had not eaten since early dinner the night before (5:30pm) that we could go first! At that point I also found out that the assisting surgeon would actually be my attending!! I was also very excited about that, since both of us really liked him when we had met him the day before. At this point I was given the option of walking up to surgery or being bed driven, I chose walking. So the three of us (Nurse Anne, Jaimie and I) headed up to the operating room. I was greeted by my spinal and surgery assistant Gretchen and Jamie and walked over to Op Room 1 to do the upstairs prep. Jaimie had to stay with Anne during this process and could not come in until the curtain was up just prior to the surgery beginning. I was starting to shake a bunch because it was cold and they placed warmed blankets all around me. I sat down on the operating bed with Gretchen holding my shoulders and telling me to stay very still and focus on her and breathing slow. I did and Anthony began the spinal, he had explained to be earlier what the process was, so I was prepared. I felt a very slight pinch in my back and then a VERY uncomfortable pressure when the medication was pushed through my spinal. Then they laid me on the bed and my legs started getting numb almost instantly. It was the weirdest sensation! Everytime someone would touch them, tingles would go through my skin. Finally I was completely numb from the breastbone down. They placed leg massagers on my legs to help with circulation and finished all the surgery prep. I started feeling nauseated and mentioned it, Anthony said its the medication and he reduced the amount and gave me an anti-nausea med in my iv. I told them I was going to be sick and Joyce, my comforting nurse grabbed a little bucket for me. I turned my head to the side and was sick for a moment. It was quick and just fluid. They placed an oxygen mask over my face to ensure baby was getting enough. It felt very cool in temp and clean. They put the curtain up and Jaimie was escorted in with Anne, both were all dressed in blue surgery suits. Jaimie was instructed not to touch anything blue and had a stool right next to me so he could hold my hand. I suddenly got overwhelmed and burst into tears. Jaimie comforted me and gently reminded me to relax and breath. I asked that the sex of the baby not be said outloud, that I wanted to discover it. Surgery began. I felt a lot of tugging and pulliing, but no pain. I asked Jaimie to tell me what was going on. He did. Then the baby was pulled out! I asked Jaimie “is his skin blue or purple?” (referring to baby generically) and Jaimie hesitated.. then he said “Well its kind of hard to say, because SHE is a little bit purple.” I said “OH! its a girl!” and burst in to tears from being so happy. The Dr. put her over the screen for a second genitalia facing me and said “I think this is the end you wanted to see?” and we all chuckled. Then she was given to Anne and placed in the warmer. Anne asked if Jaimie wanted to cut the cord and he did. Anne asked me if She could take Aurora down to be cleaned up, weighed, measured and tested with Jaimie, so that she could meet me in recovery and I said yes. They left the room and I continued to be stitched up. They finished and I thanked everyone for doing an amazing job and they all smiled and gretchen wheeled me out to the recovery room. Once in recovery I was examined and the nurses offered to clean me up a bit. I was grateful. They chatted with me while we waited for Anne to come up with Aurora and Jaimie. I also had to wait until I could move my legs before being wheeled down to my room. Within minutes Anne came in with Aurora and Jaimie and she offered to start her on my breast since she seemed very hungry. She was latched on immediately and eating happily. All went well over the next few days at the birthing center and we spent a week finishing my recovery at a friends house in Burlington. Aurora is beautiful and we both find ourselves falling more in love with her as the days go by.